


What's Daddy Brewing?

by Th3Alchemist



Series: Harmony At Home [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harmione, Harmony - Freeform, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Harry and Hermione - Freeform, Harry/Hermione - Freeform, Potter Family Feels (Harry Potter), Potter Family-centric (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27726166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Th3Alchemist/pseuds/Th3Alchemist
Summary: Harry takes a turn at entertaining his daughters, after they get into mischief and disturb Hermione from her important work from home day. What will they concoct in Harry's brew dungeon?
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Harry Potter
Series: Harmony At Home [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028044
Kudos: 15





	What's Daddy Brewing?

One of Hermione Potter's favourite places in her nice house was her office. It was big, had lots of important things in it, and was handy to be able to work from when she didn't feel like travelling all the way down to London. She didn't like the big city very much, and it was always too full of busy people. She much preferred to work from home, where she could keep an eye on things, and she could always play with her kneazle, Mimi, if she got tired of working.

It had become especially useful when she and Harry decided to bring babies into their little family unit. When Harry was a member of Magical Law Enforcement's Field department, he was often sent away on very dangerous jobs to arrest nasty wizards who had broken the law. It was no place for babies. But because Hermione and Harry wanted to become the best Mother and Father they could be, Hermione had Harry help her build an office at home, so that she could carry on doing her important work for the Ministry of Magic and look after their little babies at the same time.

Soon enough, Harry decided he had arrested enough bad wizards for the time being, so he started working in an office, too, and sending other people to do the arresting for him. But Harry missed his wife and babies far too much, so eventually decided to build an office at home too, so he could help out around the house and he and Hermione could raise their family in the best way they could think of… _together_.

But Hermione's home office was bigger and had a lovely view of the big garden and the valleys beyond. It was very pretty, and it became one of Hermione's favourite things, to sit with Harry and their babies in the bay window and just look at it, while Harry sang lullabies or tickled whichever one of their unlucky children he decided on grabbing at the time. Later on, Harry had put up a swing and a long slide and a trampoline so that their girls could play outside and Hermione could watch them through the window while she worked.

This particular weekend was a 'working' weekend for Hermione. She tried to explain this to little Celesca, who was on the verge of getting upset that Hermione didn't want to eat ice cream with her, or listen to a story she'd made up about dragons with liquorice wands for teeth, or to spend the day hunting for the creatures in the cupboard or the ghoul under the bed.

But the idea of a 'working weekend' set Celesca's imagination on fire. She decided that every other weekend must have been broken, if this one was the only one that was working. She skipped off happily, eager to see how this would play out, thinking that if the weekend was working properly, maybe the monster, who she was sure lived in the pond at the bottom of the garden, would come out to play with her finally.

She was _very_ excited by this prospect.

Her older sister, Sophie, meanwhile, had decided she was going to set a new record for _everything_ that day. Her first record was going to be building the biggest tower of Lego in the world. So she got out all her blocks and tipped them onto the floor of Hermione's office, just as her mother had begun to read some reports she'd just been sent that day.

"Sophie, sweetheart, can't you do that in the living room?" asked Hermione patiently. "Mummy has to work today."

"Oh, I'll be very quiet, Mummy," Sophie promised faithfully. "But when I make the biggest tower of Lego _ever_ , you'll have to measure it and send it to the Men at Lego for their record books. And you ought to take a picture and send it to _The Daily Prophet_ and _Junior Sorceress_ , too. I'm sure they will want to know."

"I'm sure," Hermione agreed with a little smile.

Then Hermione went back to her reports. But they were hard to read, because the _click click_ of the Lego bricks snapping together kept disturbing her. She took a breath to be patient, and rocked little baby James, who was in a bouncy rocking seat on the desk next to her. He cooed and gurgled contentedly and that made Hermione happy.

Then Celesca came in.

She saw Sophie building her tower, which was up to her shoulder by now. "What are you making?" she asked sweetly.

"The tallest Lego tower _ever_ ," Sophie replied proudly.

"Can I help?"

"No!" Sophie snapped crossly.

"Can I watch?" asked Celesca.

"You can watch, but you have to sit all the way over there," Sophie frowned, pointing to the very far end of the room. "And don't touch anything."

"What about these two bricks?" Celesca asked innocently, picking two up from the pile. "Can I play with them?"

"No!" Sophie snapped again, trying to snatch the bricks from her sister's hand. "I _need_ them. Besides, these are _my_ toys."

"Mummy, can I play with the Lego?" Celesca implored to Hermione. "I only want these two pieces see?"

She held them up to illustrate her case.

Hermione sighed deeply, and put her reports down once again. "Sophie, can't your sister just have two blocks?"

"No, I need them _all_ ," Sophie replied stubbornly.

"But isn't it nice to share?"

"No. It isn't."

Hermione frowned at Sophie, then looked over at Celesca, who was stretching on tip-toe next to the Lego Tower.

"Look, see, I'm helping," Celesca beamed, struggling to connect the Lego bricks in her _very_ stretched arms to the topmost piece of the tower, wobbling a little on her dainty toes.

"No! Get away!" cried Sophie, who snatched at the bricks again, but actually pushed Celesca into the tower, which came crashing down to the ground. Both girl and tower hit the wooden floor. The tower shattered, and Celesca bumped her knee and began to cry.

"Sophie! Say sorry," Hermione demanded, as she got up to tend to Celesca's bruise.

"Sorry? Why? _She_ did it. She's ruined everything!"

"She was only trying to help," said Hermione.

"I don't want her help! It was _my_ tower!"

"Can't you just play nicely together?" Hermione begged. "I have a lot of important work to do today."

"No, I don't want to play with _her!_ " said Sophie crossly.

"Well then, I think you'd better go and play in the garden," said Hermione sternly. "If you cant be nice in the house."

So Sophie stormed off. Hermione gave Celesca's knee a little kiss, told off the floor for being so nasty as to hurt her, and Celesca was soon as right as rain. She trotted off like a bundle of energy, thinking that playing in the garden was a _very_ good idea. Hermione was pleased that everything was sorted out now and pulled back her papers again, to read all about a new help centre for witches who were having babies for the first time.

Out in the garden, Sophie was using the swing. She scowled as Celesca came over to her.

"Go away. I'm playing here."

"You're swinging," said Celesca fairly. "I'm going to have a go on the slide."

"I'm on the swing _now_ ," said Sophie. "But when I've swung the highest any witch has ever swung _ever_ , then _I'm_ going to go on the slide, and slide _faster_ than any witch ever has. So _you_ cant play on it."

"But can I play on it till you are finished swinging, then we can swap?" asked Celesca.

"No, because you might break the slide. You always ruin everything," said Sophie, waspishly.

"I do not."

"Yes, you do," said Sophie. "Now go away. I cant swing as high when _you're_ watching, cos you spoil it. And I reckon I can swing over the _moon_."

"I don't spoil anything," Celesca protested. "I want to see you swing. I don't think you can swing over the moon. No-one can."

" _I can_ ," said Sophie arrogantly. "Watch this!"

So she swung and swung and went higher and higher. But just as she was getting very, _very_ high, Mimi the Kneazle darted out from under a bush, chasing a mouse that she'd found there. Without thinking, little Celesca raced off in pursuit and didn't look where she was running…and she ran right in front of the swing…

"Oof! Ouch! Owwwww!"

Celesca cried out as Sophie came speeding towards her and hit her right in the face with her feet. She couldn't stop. Hermione, hearing the high-pitched screeching, came rushing out of the house at once, to find Sophie cradling her sister's head, which was bleeding quite badly as Celesca cried and cried.

"I'm sorry, Mummy, I couldn't stop!" Sophie begged.

"What have you been doing!" Hermione demanded crossly.

"I didn't mean to!" Sophie plead, tears welling in her eyes, too. "She was chasing Mimi and just ran in my way."

"There, there," Hermione cooed, scooping up Celesca into her arms. She cleaned the blood with a little flick of her wand and took away the pain with a clever little spell too, that Sophie didn't even hear.

Celesca stopped crying at once. "My teeth are broken!" she moaned. "Will I have to go to Nanna and Bampi to get them fixed?"

Hermione chuckled. "No, sweetie, just don't tell them I used magic on your teeth to fix them. You know how cross they get about that."

A deft spell later and all the damage was gone. Celesca's pretty smile was as good as new. Hermione sat her daughters down next to each other and looked at each one in turn. "Now, who's going to tell me what happened?"

"It was an accident, Mummy," said Celesca quickly. "I was trying to catch Mimi and I ran in front of the swing. Don't tell Sophie off. It wasn't her fault."

Hermione smiled. "So it was _Mimi's_ fault, was it? Okay. I will only feed her dog treats for being so silly and causing so much uproar. How about that?"

"Okay!" Sophie and Celesca chimed, grinning at each other that they'd got out of trouble.

"Now," Hermione went on. "I think we need to find you somewhere to play where you cant get into more trouble, and so I can get some work done. I will get told off if I don't do it, you know."

"I don't want you to get told off, Mummy," said Celesca mournfully, hugging Hermione tight.

"No, we're sorry, Mummy. We'll be good. Promise."

"Hmmm, I don't think we can take the chance," said Hermione shrewdly. "Where's your father? Have you seen him?"

"He's in his Dungeon, Mummy," said Sophie. "He's with Uncle Neville, remember?"

"Ah, of course," Hermione grinned. "Come on girls, it's time your Daddy did some _Daddying_ today."

The Potter sisters jumped up and followed their mother back through the house, after she checked in on sleepy baby James one more time. They wound their way past the kitchen and the pantry, the alchemy room and the library, the living room and dining room, and the _second_ library where Hermione put all her books that couldn't fit in her first library.

Then they went down the long spooky staircase, that creaked and groaned, until they reached Harry's Dungeon.

It wasn't _really_ a dungeon, it was more like a cellar. There were rows and rows of wine bottles, and cases of brandy and port and all the other weird drinks grown-ups liked, but that little girls weren't allowed, but tried to sneak a bit of anyway when the grown-ups weren't looking. It was also the place that Harry and Neville came to make beer on the last Saturday of every month, which just happened to be today.

"Oh, hello, love," said Harry, as the door to the Brew Dungeon opened. "Girls…everything okay?"

"Your daughters are getting into all sorts of bother without you," Hermione confessed in a solemn voice. "Getting kicked in the face and breaking Lego skyscrapers. And Mummy just cant juggle all the drama and work at the same time. So I think Daddy needs to step up."

"But Daddy is _working_ …" Harry offered rather weakly.

"Here you go, Harry. The Plum Porter is ready…" said Neville, emerging from the gloom with two foaming tankards of dark beer. Then his face fell guiltily. "Oh…hello, Hermione…er…how's your day going?"

"Fine…now," Hermione frowned. "Work, work and more work. You know how it is. And as _Mummy's_ sort of work will actually pay the bills, I'm leaving our little cherubs to their Daddy for the day. Have fun."

And with that, Hermione turned on her haughty heel and sashayed away from the room.

Harry looked down at his wide-eyed, expectant children. "Well…I'm sure we can find _something_ for you to do.."

Then the door opened again. Hermione had returned with baby James in his high chair. She placed him gently next to Harry's work bench, then kissed him on the head, winked wickedly at Harry, and sauntered away again.

"Daddy, what are you doing today?" asked Sophie.

"Well, we _were_ going to make beer," said Harry.

"We can help!" cried Celesca enthusiastically. "We can make beer. I think. Soph… _what is_ beer?"

"It's a drink with naughty things in it that grown-ups like, because it makes them be very loud and dance a lot," said Sophie sagely.

"Oh, that sounds fun. We should definitely help you make it, Daddy. It would be for the best, I think."

"Hmm. The problem is, the first rule of Home Brewing states: 'Always _drink_ a home brew while _making_ a home brew'. And little girls aren't allowed home brewed beer. Or any beer, actually."

"Hey, Harry," said Neville mischievously. "How about non-alcoholic _cider_?"

"Nev…that's just apple juice…" said Harry, then understanding hit. "Ah…that's _perfect_!"

Harry flicked his wand and conjured two glasses of apple juice, with ice and straws and cocktail umbrellas, then handed one each to Sophie and Celesca.

"Right, girls, you can do some weighing, can't you?" asked Harry.

"Yes, Daddy!" they chorused.

"I weigh the best flour for cakes," said Sophie proudly.

"And I always count out the right amount of sultanas," Celesca added. "I do _love_ sultanas."

"Excellent," said Harry. "Right then, Uncle Nev will put two big bags of grain on table. I want you to grab a scale each, and measure out exactly one-and-a-half kilos of each one. Got it?"

The girls nodded and rushed off to get the sets of weighing scales. They had a silent row over who was going to use the new one or the old one, deciding in the end by a game of _rock, paper, scissors,_ which Celesca used her Seer skills to cheat at and win. Then they set to work measuring out the grain. Sophie was concentrating very hard, which meant she poked her tongue out and closed her left eye, which was her little thing when she was thinking a lot.

Celesca spilt most of her grain at first, as the scoop was too big for her. So she brushed up the little pile of dust and husks and put them onto the tray in front of baby James, who ate them happily while babbling away in baby language and overseeing everything.

Soon all the grain had been collected and Harry and Uncle Neville put it carefully into the big cauldron in the corner of the dungeon. Sophie had to hold Celesca nice and still, as the water in the cauldron was very hot, and if it splashed onto them it would burn. But soon Harry had all the grain in the water, so he mixed it around really well until he was happy. Then they just had to wait. It smelled like baking and bread and porridge, and for a while they just sat there without talking and enjoyed it. Celesca closed her eyes and sucked as much of the yummy smell up her nose as she could manage.

Then Harry had an idea.

"You know, girls, seeing how Mummy was very cross with me, and she's been ever so busy with work today, how about we make her some surprise wine?" he suggested.

"Oh, _yes_ , Daddy!" Sophie chirped. "Mummy does like wine ever so much. The red ones are her favourite. They make her cheeks go all pink and she talks funny, which I like because it makes me laugh so much."

"Is it like making beer?" asked Celesca. "Do I have to get the scoop again, because I just washed it and you should have said if I needed it again."

"No, honey, it isn't like making beer," said Harry. "Though you will need to take off your shoes and socks."

"Why's that, Daddy?" asked Sophie, kicking off her little white flats.

"Well you see, to make wine, you need lots and lots of grapes," Harry explained.

"Like the ones you grow on the vines in the big back garden?" asked Celesca.

"Yes, those ones," Harry confirmed. "Once we pick all the grapes we need, what we have to do then is get the juice out of them. And the best way to do that, is to _stomp_ on them!"

"Stomp on them?" Celesca cried, sounding delighted at the prospect. She tugged excitedly at her little yellow socks.

"I'll be good at this, as I'm a very good stomper," said Sophie confidently.

"Yes you are," Harry agreed with a chuckle. "You both stomp enough to be professionals at it!"

"Here you go then, little stompers," said Neville, grinning. "Come over here."

He poured several big sacks of grapes into a huge round tub, which had a little spout on the end. Then he lifted Sophie inside, while Harry did the same with Celesca. The girls hitched up their skirts, then began stamping and stomping on all the grapes they could reach. The dark little fruits squelched deliciously under their heels and between their toes, making them laugh and giggle.

"Eww, that was a fat one!" Sophie laughed, as a grape exploded with a satisfying _pop_ beneath her.

"Look, if you dance on them, they squash even better!" Celesca giggled.

So they started dancing. The vat was big enough to do _do-si-dos_ , and spin with linked arms, and Celesca was little enough to do a sort of frenzied _can-can._ Soon enough, all the grapes were completely squashed. So Harry opened a valve on the spout and collected all the juice in a big glass jar, sprinkled some yeast on top of it, then set it aside to bubble away till it was ready.

"Mummy will be ever so pleased we made her wine," said Sophie happily, watching the yeast fall to the bottom of the glass jar.

"When will it be ready, Daddy?" asked Celesca.

"It will be a few weeks I'm afraid," said Harry. "In the meantime, how about we take your Mummy a glass of wine from a batch I made before?"

"Ooh yes, she'll like that," Celesca nodded. "I don't think she really wants to be working today."

Sophie agreed. "Daddy, I think you should go and tell Mummy to stop working, then we can all go and sit in the garden in the sun, with our beer and wine and cider with no naughty bits in for me and Cesc. Then I can push Cesc really high on the swing, and you can watch to see if she goes over the moon."

Harry laughed at that. "I think that's a wonderful idea. Come on, let's go and tell your mother all about our little plan. I'm sure she'll be _over the moon_ about it too."

And, as I'm sure you can guess, Mrs Potter really was.


End file.
